Student Teacher Anxiety tips?

[studentteacher18]

Hi everyone!

This is my first post and after reading many different threads, I feel an accepting vibe which I have been longing for quite a while now.

I am currently completing my last year of my bachelor of education (primary) at university and I cannot wait to finish. Along with my course I also completed a health and physical education extension which allows me to teach health and physical education up to year 10.

Because of this extension, last year during my third year of university, I had to undertake 2x 2 week placements at a high school, which at first I was really excited about. I met my mentor teacher on the first day of placement, which I immediately felt intimidated and at times spoken down to. This automatically made me feel extremely uncomfortable, and at times not wanted. He bombarded me with lesson plans to teach year 11 and 12 students that very same day, and when I explained to him of my extension, he refused to listen to my concerns and urged me to teach his VCE students. After I explained myself many times about the fact I couldn't teach VCE students, he eventually gave in and told me that good and effective student teachers would have listened to him. I went home crying that night and felt so anxious that I could not stop shaking. The next day I spoke to my university placement coordinator, and explained to her how I was feeling. She was extremely helpful and told me that if I didn't want to teach then so be, and if I felt like observing was the best option for this round of placement then so be it. I felt a little better with the circumstance, however I dreaded going back to that school. I eventually took a few year 10 health lessons, which I taught the lessons with enthusiasm and will to teach the students. However after every lesson, my supervising teacher would only give me negative feedback, and non-constructive feedback. This made me feel really small.

After those 2 weeks were over, I felt great again- but never forgot how horrible I felt. The next round of placement were at another school, and my mentor teacher was so much nicer and gave me positive feedback every day. My anxiety returned throughout this placement, but i got through it easier.

Now I am currently completing my final placement with Prep students, which is an amazing experience, however because of my horrible high school placement, I have major anxiety sometimes which really makes me feel low

Does anybody have any tips to help my anxiety? Thank you kindly!

[Hope_for_the_best]

It seems that you are quite affected by the negative placement you had, but you also had some very good experiences. Why not focus on the positives? I tend to focus on the negatives too and whenever I do so, I get anxious. The idea of placement is practice. After all, you don't automatically know how to teach well without experiences. It is a trial and error process and practice makes perfect, so there must be times when you do not do well enough. Believe in yourself that you will get there one day.

Feedback from others can be very helpful for improvement. For the negative comments, try not to take it too personal. If you don't understand the negative comments, why not clarify with your supervising teacher? If you ask politely, something like "From your comments, I did not do well for such and such parts. Could you advise on possible improvements?", your supervising teacher should be more than happy to explain further. This helps you to do better in future placements, so you get less anxious.

All the best!

[Larnzi]

Hi there,

I was a student teacher once so I understand how you are feeling about your placement as I have been in your shoes. I had one wonderful placement & one where I felt I didn't really fit in which made me feel anxious but I got around it by bluffing my way through & focusing on doing whatever it was I needed to do to get it done & get on with finishing my course. Keep your focus on that end goal of finishing your course & being handed your degree. This helped to lessen my anxiety.

Negative feedback is never a nice feeling but I agree with the above post to ask what they suggest you can improve on & how they would go about this so you can learn from them. It may help to build a relationship between you and your mentor which may help you feel more at ease. Just remember there is no student teacher out there who is perfect and there is no teacher out there who is perfect. Even when you go into the real world of teaching you are constantly still finding your feet & figuring things out & I still feel like I am learning everyday (some days more than others!).

See if changing what you are focusing on helps. Because you are in a prep placement focus on the amazing kiddies, they will easily distract your anxiety with their funny comments, conversations & things they come out with and more importantly the way they view & tackle life. I have only just found myself in the last week noticing this with my own class & relating it to my own life experiences at the moment. It is scary how much we change our perceptions of the world as we get older & children can teach us so much on that regard. The focus on the kids will help to lessen your anxiety.

I wish you all the best in your placement and hope you charge on through to the end of your degree. Keep the end goal in mind.

Larnzi

[studentteacher18]

Thank you for the replies!

I agree with both of your posts, suggesting to my mentor teacher to clarify feedback if i do not properly or fully understand it. I definitely know that teaching is one of those professions where you are constantly perfecting your art, I guess at times I have just been doubting myself about being a teacher based off of that negative experience. But I will definitely focus more on the positives- especially being with the prep students, they are amazing and so much fun to teach and be around.
I am honestly trying my best to clear out all of this anxiety that I have been experiencing over the past year and a half, and I really appreciate your suggestions and time to reply to my post! Thank you so much.

I will keep at it, and I will make sure that I have that degree in my hand when it is all done.

Thank you once again.

🙂

[white knight]

Hi student teacher, welcome

My daughter has been a teacher year 7-12 for 5 years now.

After 2 years she was off work for anxiety and depression. This was due mainly to a/ the work in general, enduring abuse from parents and students and teacher palming work onto her that they should do. and b/ a particularly stressful principle at one school.

However, she is back at work in a long term 7 year contract and is at a new school and has recovered at long with some way to go with her anxiety.

With experience I've advised her to

a/ refuse extra work from other teachers.

b/ observe how the older long term teachers survive in the job and mimic some of that.

c/ don't be afraid of some short cuts if it means the nature of the job demands that. That's life. It isn't your fault.

d/ eat your breakfast. Getting the shakes mid morning can be from hunger.

e/ seek relaxation techniques.

Google. Topic: the balance of your life- beyondblue.

Tony WK

[studentteacher18]

Hi Tony,

Thank you so much for sharing your story about your daughter and her experiences with work. It is awesome to hear other people's experiences of being in the education environment.

I really appreciate your suggestions, they are extremely helpful. I have been making an extra effort to eat breakfast, as well as try relaxation techniques such as meditation and calming music before bed. My girlfriend recommended some excellent meditation videos which have been so helpful. I am happy to share the links if anyone is interested.

Thank you once again, and I wish you and your daughter all the happiness in the world.

Kind regards.